The Manipulative Person gives you doctrines and teachings that you cannot test

The evidence never lies.  Ever.  It can be faked or misread but that it not its fault.  Evidence that misleads is false evidence.  Assumptions are the enemy of evidence unless you have to assume something.  Anything that is not testable is a threat to evidence.  It is better to have evidence and see it and then create a non-testable belief in order to get around it than to create a non-testable belief without even looking at the evidence. Why?  Because there is hope if you have seen the evidence.  The most opposition to evidence in the person who protects his doctrines from refutation and exposure who has not even looked at the evidence.

 

When a doctrine is made non-testable that means it is a call for you to close your mind. It says there is no point in questions.

And in many cases, it is made more than a call but a command. You are accused of being stupid, bad or evil if you don’t accept it.

The bigger the doctrine the more obnoxious all that is.

The selfish thing about it is that this scheme appeals to those who want to dispense with the hard work of critical thinking.

Anybody can make an argument and you need some way of seeing if that person is speaking in good faith. The only way to test is to see if the person is dishing out a tautology or giving you an untestable argument. An untestable argument is only words dressed up as an argument. If x is untestable then you can go for non-x if it is non-testable as well. X and even non-x would be simply dishonest. If God is untestable and atheism is untestable then it seems it takes as much faith to believe in one as the other.

Faith should never be in opposition to the evidence and to thinking things out. Faith should be enlightened by evidence and supported by it.

Science is about what is detectable and seeks to find what is currently undetectable. Religion makes out God is undetectable in case science finds out he does not exist. It then is not science's fault if it cannot find God. Conveniently it is said to be not God's fault either!

 

True tolerance is only possible if you respect reality instead of trying to think that believing things turns them into truth. In fact, the truth asks for tolerance of the truth! To try and see what is real means you also trying to tolerate it. It is not enough for something to be said to be the truth. It must be testable and tested. Those who plead for tolerance for the truth when their truth is non-testable are scamming.

 

Two big scams are miracle claims and praying for others.

 

Accepting something as a miracle is bias for anything that cannot be tested is bias by default.  You cannot ever prove that there is no natural explanation for a miracle for you cannot think of all possible explanations.  If it is natural then it is not a miracle.  You cannot test if God did something for if something is supernatural the true cause cannot be seen or found.

 

Prayer is bias for anything that cannot be tested is bias by default.  Even when you do not get what you ask for you are told the prayer just worked in a way that was best for you.  It is too biased to be about anything other than feelings.  It is not right to use the suffering of others to make yourself feel good by praying for them.

 

There is no point in miracles happening if prayer is immoral for prayer is the one thing you need to develop a religion or a theology.  Miracles are supposed to be about showing God's love not about mere showmanship.

 

Many religions speak of grace, the gift of God.  Some say that the power to be fit for Heaven is an act of divine grace.   If x has an ordinary future with no sign of God looking after her soul laid out for her and she chooses God and then things happen to shape her into a saint that is a different future from what could have been.  God redesigns.  Many see grace not as a miracle power poured into you but as you aligning yourself with God and then God who gives you your future gives you one with him as in deliberate design. It has to do with the future. The doctrine of grace is about causing the future to come about God’s holy way by consenting to this and agreeing to cooperate. This idea is testable.  People do give all over to God and nothing happens to better them and they fall away and end up worse than before.  It will not do to blame them for falling away.  That is an excuse and a judgemental one.

 

Religion seeks to control your perception by taking away your right to test things.  Don't let it.